Stockton charter closing after just 10 days

Thursday

Sep 20, 2012 at 12:01 AM

STOCKTON - With enrollment less than one-third of what was expected, a charter high school that opened only last week in temporary space at Sherwood Mall will shut its doors for the final time Friday after a 10-day run.

Roger Phillips

STOCKTON - With enrollment less than one-third of what was expected, a charter high school that opened only last week in temporary space at Sherwood Mall will shut its doors for the final time Friday after a 10-day run.

The imminent closing of troubled Velocity International Science and Technology Academy leaves about 70 students looking for new schools and six teachers looking for new jobs as September reaches its late stages.

Principal Jeff Tilton sent an email to parents and students Wednesday afternoon informing them of the decision. Teachers taught classes Wednesday morning knowing they soon would be unemployed.

VISTA is scheduled to host an event at 6 p.m. today at its site in the mall during which students will have the opportunity to enroll in new schools.

Stockton Unified, the San Joaquin County Office of Education and Humphreys College's Academy of Business, Law and Education are among those expected to send representatives. Like VISTA, ABLE's charter was authorized by tiny New Jerusalem School District in Tracy.

Students and teachers sobbed as Tilton broke the news during a brief afternoon assembly Wednesday at VISTA.

"I believed this school would be best for me," said junior Veronica Campos, 16, who spent her first two years of high school at Stockton Early College Academy, and she said she plans to return there immediately. "I had no idea this was coming."

Another former SECA student, 15-year-old Jesus Lopez, said of Tilton's announcement, "Everything was going well. It was the most shocking thing."

Wiping away tears, teacher Karen Lytle said of the displaced students, "They'll move ahead. They'll go to another school. They're going to do brilliantly. I have every confidence they'll move ahead. It's just sad."

VISTA's brief existence followed a turbulent gestation period. It originally was established by parents and community members who had been affiliated with SECA and had unsuccessfully sought independence from Stockton Unified.

Following the bitter independence struggle, VISTA turned to New Jerusalem. Last month, founding SECA Principal Michael Hall, who spearheaded VISTA's establishment, ceased to be affiliated with the new school. Hall's departure came amid murky circumstances.

Tilton, who turned 51 Wednesday, entered the picture at the same time Hall exited. When he arrived, the school was nowhere near ready to open, he said two weeks ago.

The school had not even purchased a curriculum. After Tilton's arrival, VISTA purchased an online curriculum produced by Education 2020. Tilton worked earlier this year as a sales associate for that Oregon-based company. He said he was not paid by Education 2020 for bringing the curriculum to VISTA.

In late August, the school fired three teachers and the assistant principal, all of whom had left jobs in Stockton Unified to work for VISTA. Tilton said the school's enrollment was 220, not large enough to sustain a nine-teacher staff and an assistant principal but big enough for six teachers.

On Sept. 9, VISTA's opening day, fewer than 70 students showed up. Tilton and New Jerusalem Superintendent David Thoming said they quickly realized the disappointingly small enrollment would not generate enough revenue - about $6,000 a year for each of the 70 students - to sustain the school.

"One thing I'm fairly proficient at is multiplication: 70 times 6,000 doesn't add up to a whole lot," Thoming said.

That's $420,000 - not enough, according to Thoming, to pay the salaries of the teachers, Tilton and a counselor, along with the costs of rent, equipment and curriculum.

Thoming, Tilton and VISTA board members said they were stunned by the small turnout on opening day and did little more than speculate why so few students showed.

"More than likely they probably took a look around and decided that the school wasn't what was promised and decided to stay where they were at or pick a different school," Thoming said.

VISTA originally touted the opportunity it would give its students to graduate with two years of college credits. But no arrangement with college instructors was ever reached, and the fallback plan was to offer those credits through the online Education 2020 software.

Several parents were on hand Wednesday when Tilton announced the closure. Two of them said their children had started the school year as eighth graders in Stockton Unified but withdrew and enrolled at VISTA as freshmen because of the rigor that was promised.

The parents said they had thought VISTA was functioning well right up until Wednesday's news. One of them, Renee Cano, was angry that parents have been given so little time to find new schools for their children.

"There are going to be at least a handful of kids home next week until their parents can enroll them in school," Cano said.

Mick Founts, superintendent of the county office, said he could not recall a charter school closing during the academic year.

"The people who decide they want to start charters, there's a lot of freedom and flexibility ... but a lot of responsibility, also," Founts said. "I'm sure everybody involved had the best intentions in mind, but running a school isn't done just by good intentions. It's hard work. I think this is an example where folks didn't understand the challenges of opening a charter."